Search - Gabriel Faure, Jean Martin :: Fauré: Nocturnes, Vol. 2

The Very Best Faure...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 06/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The late nocturnes of Faure are virtually his best works for piano solo. One can see why Faure is sometimes called "the French Brahms," for he makes great use of the lower registers of the piano--for which Brahms also had a great affinity. Still, Faure also has a kind of luminescent airiness in the bright upper registers--which is something of a "classic" characteristic of much purely French music.Faure's nocturnes have a meditative ambience. It's thought that because Faure himself was ambidextrous his pieces frenquently seem to offer this step-wise balance alternating between the hands: in some passages, the effect is quite hypnotic.Frenchman Jean Martin has a real handle on these works: he lets them breathe fully, and his timing is very steady and ambient--which is exactly what these pieces call for. Some might consider Martin's realizations "slow," but he's brilliant where he needs to be, and slower is better than faster: after all, this is not a footrace.The recorded sound is excellent."